Breaking Rumor- Pop Century is over...

[carterman_12]

Word is on the resort board is that Disney has paid millions to the construction companies that was building Pop Century to stop construction and quit the job...meaning the Pop Century is over...can anyone confirm this?

 

[YoHo]

We knew that they had stopped construction and put an indefinatew hold on it. I hadn't heard about any payoffs.

 

[carterman_12]

but have they just canceled the project?

 

[redpants]

Although there may be a rumor that construction has been/will be stopped, I doubt that this is the end of Pop Century. As of last Friday, construction was still going strong when I drove by.

In addition, two pools have been completed on-site, as well as the "main" building of phase I (front desk/food court area), and several of the Phase I hotel buildings (bright colors and all).

I can't imagine that everything would just be left as-is.

 

[redpants]

UPDATE: I made a point to drive past Pop today, and everyone was still there, hammering, and sawing, and building like crazy...So, all is well!

 

[mikek]

its possible (and i suppose probable) that disney made arraingments with the contractor(s) to reschedule the completion.

Another example of this would be Intel- they are in the middle of building new chip plants. But the economy doesnt warrent the completion for anohter year. So they arrange (for a fee) with the contractor to slow down and in some instances stop in their tracks and stow things in a logical way- like making sure roofs are done but maybe interior walls arent, etc.

Usually the contractor wants some compensation because they planned on completting the project in x time so they would make y dollars. Now they will still make y dollars but it will take longer time due to no fault of theirs- so they want dollars to make up for the longer time. Its like you boss saying- i'll still pay you $200 in your pay check but rahter than pay you once a week i'll pay you every 10 days. If you could you'd ask for a bigger check.

 

[Mop]

I doubt Pop Century will ever be scrapped entirely. One day, Disney will need more hotel rooms. Be it 1 year from now or 5 years from now. And anyone who has driven by the site will see that many of the complexes have already been built and only the finishing touches remain. Better to mothball what they have and resume construction when necessary than to scrap the whole project.

Mop

 

[Poohbear123]

If you build it, they will COME!

 

[EpcotMom]

Disney made the decision to put the opening of the Pop Century Resort on hold in response to the economy. It just means that it would be foolish to pay all the employees to be there, and no one to stay in the rooms. Once things pick up, it will open.

 

[Testtrack321]

I bet a Summer 2002 opening is in store (economy pending), instead of Chirstmas 2001. That sounds right......

 

[Janet2k]

The Southern Fire Protection Of Orlando, Inc. website claims: “The above pictures show the building approximately 80% complete in late August, 2001.” Here’s the link to it: http://www.southernfire.net/project05.htm

I found some more pictures here: http://www.johnswdwpage.com/popcentury.htm It shows some buildings that look fairly complete.

I haven’t seen many photos or drawings of the Pop Century, so this one struck my interest because it showed what one of the pool areas is going to look like: http://www.designbuildmag.com/April01/otw401.asp

Here is an interesting article on the whole design and build process that Disney employed with the Pop Century Resort: http://www.designbuildmag.com/April01/disney401.asp

 

[mudhen]

Disney magazine just posted that the opening will be

March of 2002, with the 1950's and 1960's being the

first buildings available.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally posted by mudhen
Disney magazine just posted that the opening will be

March of 2002, with the 1950's and 1960's being the

first buildings available.

That information in Disney Magazine is now obsolete. First the opening was postponed from 12/2001 until 03/2002. Then the opening was postponed indefinately. So the information in Disney Magazine was accurate at one time, but no longer is.

 

[dixie13]

we rode by last week. there were some buildings that were almost done so i can't imagine them scrapping it entirely. there were also workers there but many of the cranes and trucks were empty and still. so i came to the conclusion that they were just slowing down the pace a bit!

 

[Carl]

about Pop Century. Wouldn't you think that they would have deleted that, if they were not going to open it?

 

[JeffJewell]

Wouldn't you think that they would have deleted that, if they were not going to open it?

...Disney has been very slow recently in changing promotional material to reflect what is actually open/available. We got a packet just a week or so ago that was advertising the Artist Point character breakfast. Yes, the same Artist Point character breakfast that has not existed since May of this year.

Jeff

 

[All Aboard]

Running with JJ's thoughts...

We've received two packets (in the past week) for upcoming trips that serve as "trip planners". One sheet in them is clearly a nice laser print job from software with mail merging capabilities. Insert name of guest, select whether they have children or not, enter their resort name, print.

Well, both of those items we've received list Early Entry as a resort benefit. These are not materials that have been produced in advance. These are created as reservations are made or arrival dates near. Yet, nobody has thought to open up the Word document and take out the language.

 

[aprincessmom]

When you are doing "mail-merge" printing of this quantity, those ARE printed ahead of time by print houses that have the capacity to do what is known as "personalized" printing jobs. They look like someone ran it off especially for you on their printer but in reality it was mass printed as a shell and the printing press is programmed to drop the names onto the shell saving time and money. The customer, in this case Disney, will then wait until all items are complete and drop ship to save money on postage charges.

In other cases, companies order these shells by the 10's of thousands and then laser print the address on for distribution on an as needed basis. Again, these look like individually printed letters and marketing materials but they are not. Given the volume Disney would need to print in a day, it would be impossible for them to individually laser print trip planner packets. They most likely have a shell that states "standard benefits" and spaces for customization.

Magazines are printed anywhere from 1-3 months ahead of time with the exceptions of the national weeklies which are drop printed at satellite plants throughout the country. About half the magazine -- that stuff which is not time sensitive -- is printed ahead of time with the rest being dropped in at the last minute.

 

[All Aboard]

All of that could be true and there is still a problem. I made one of the reservations after EE had been eliminated. It's just too bad that the packets kept rolling out with the bad information.

Had this been a well thought out decision based on guest preferences (as it has been sold to us), these considerations would have been made. Instead, it points to a more hasty, cost-cutting measure.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Had this been a well thought out decision based on guest prefernces (as it has been sold to us) these considerations would have been made. Instead it points to a more hasty, cost cutting measure.

Why couldn't this be both? It would seem entirely logical to me that Disney had visited this possibility & perhaps was still considering its implementation sometime down the road. Then 9/11 comes along and big changes needed to be undertaken immediately, thus the hasty (not yet prepared version of something that probably was thought out) decision.

It seems to me that the decision to eliminate EE harkens to the much the same thought process that has reduced hours & eliminated free valet parking...So while I don't see Disney straying from their path, it appears they may be stumbling along the proper path in the dark without a flashlight.